


Experiment 2318

by HorseCrazyWriter76



Series: Experiment 2318 Endings [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Animal Death, Gen, Human Experimentation, Scientist! Deceit, Villain! Deceit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 15,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorseCrazyWriter76/pseuds/HorseCrazyWriter76
Summary: Evan stood with his finger hovering over a green button, blueish light bathing his face. A monitor to his left showed the magic index from the chamber in front of him. All was clear. His clipboard and pen sat at his right, ready for taking notes or reviewing the order of events he had decided on. All was silent. Bandages, healing potions, and various medications sat behind him. All was ready. He set his thumb on the sensing pad and hit the button.





	1. Creation

     Evan stood with his finger hovering over a green button, blueish light bathing his face. A monitor to his left showed the magic index from the tube in front of him. All was clear. His clipboard and pen sat at his right, ready for taking notes or reviewing the order of events he had decided on. All was silent. Bandages, healing potions, and various medications sat behind him. All was ready. He set his thumb on the sensing pad and hit the button.

     Evan didn’t open his eyes right away. He must have been moved, as his head was higher than his feet. After a moment of listening and hearing nothing, he opened his eyes to find he was laying flat on the floor and blood was still trickling out of the wound on his thumb. He swiped an hp potion, bandages, and antibiotic ointment from the cart. He waited until his head felt clearer and wrote down what happened before turning to look at the cryogenics chamber in front of him. An infant floated in the blue liquid. It was a perfect match to him in every way except for age and size. He pressed another button and the platform turned to show him an empty chamber. He pressed the green button and when he woke up, bandaged his cheek. He was unwilling to risk it being in a visible location again, and pressed his pinky onto the pad.

     He looked at the quadruplets floating in the liquid. He had labeled each of the chambers with what he had used to create the infant inside. There was thumb, pinky, middle, and cheek, although he would have to label them something more sophisticated once they were moved out of their chambers. For now he needed rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Handplates(https://zarla-s.tumblr.com/post/139516306171/okay-i-get-a-lot-of-questions-about-what-order-the)
> 
> Updates every Monday. I promise they'll be longer than this one. Here's a drawing of Evan to make up for the tiny chapter: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/460906589713334275/587812478491033610/Evan.png


	2. Contact

Two looked at the other in front of him. They looked almost exactly alike. The only difference was that little tan things covered his legs.

“Hi! I’m Pinky!” the thing spoke.

“I am called 2318-2.”

“Wait, I’m called that, too! But I’m 3.”

“As in 2318-3?”

“Yeah.”

“Dr. Sanders?” Cheek turned around.

Evan nearly lost hold of his pen at being addressed by name.

“How many 2318’s are there?”

“Four.”

“Are you one?”

“No.”

“Where are the others?”

“Nearby. Are you going to continue to question me?”

“If I would be allowed I would like to.”

“Perhaps if you answer one of my questions. Why did you call me Dr. Sanders?”

“It says Dr. Sanders where it says our numbers,” Cheek replied, pointing to the messily pinned piece of paper reading 2318-2 on his chest. Evan looked down at his name tag and added to his notes.

“Interesting.”

“What are you writing?”

“Notes.”

“Are we twins?”

“In a way.”

“What does that mean?”

“That is enough questions. I will be leaving you here while I observe 2318-1 and 2318-4.”

“Okay.”

“See you later!”

Evan pinched the bridge of his nose. This experiment was more costly than he thought, in monetary value, moral value, and time value. He slowly ran a finger along the edge of the scar on his face, taking a detour around the eye patch. He sighed and opened the door to 2318-4’s room. He looked around the room for a moment before leaning down to check under the bed. Two eyes stared back at him.

“I do not have time for games, 2318-4,” he sighed and reached a hand under the bed. He grabbed his shirt and dragged him out, grabbing his hand to keep him from trying to get away. This one was the most troublesome. 2318-3 was delicate and emotionally needy, but he was easy to please with stuffed animals. 2318-2 was overly curious, but was likewise satisfied with puzzles. 2318-1 was loud, but could also be distracted by crayons. 2318-4 seemed only to enjoy vexing him. He locked him in a plain room and went to get 2318-1.

“You hath return!” 2318-1 exclaimed when the door opened, “Douth hath food?”

“No, come with me.”

“Where are we going? Are we doing puthle?” he asked, running ahead a little bit.

“You missed the door,” Evan replied and pulled open the door to where he had left 2318-4.

“Who are you?” 2318-1 asked immediately, running over to 2318-4, who sprinted in the opposite direction, right towards Evan and the open door. Evan pulled the door shut and let the game go on for a moment.

“Stop. 2318-1, come here.”

“Aww. I wanted to thay hi,” 2318-1 complained. Evan took them both back to their rooms and went back to check on 2318-2 and 2318-3. 2318-3 was napping with his head on 2318-2’s lap, who was fidgeting with his name tag. He put them back in their rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2318-2 called me Dr. Sanders. He is the first to do so.  
> 2318-2 can read.  
> 2318-1’s lisp has become more pronounced.  
> 2318-2 and 2318-3 seemed to tolerate each other's presence well. (There's white out over what was originally the second half of the note.)


	3. Reading

The room was silent. Three and One were collapsed on One’s bed together, although ever since Four was put in the room they had turned into just mattresses on the floor. Four himself was curled into a ball using the mattress as a blanket and his blanket as a mattress. Two knew that they hadn’t transformed, of course, it was simply a figure of speech. He picked up a colored cube that Dr. Sanders had left with them. He couldn’t see the colors very well in the dark, but he began to fidget with it, soon realizing it was made of panels of 9 cubes and had 6 different colors, 9 of each one, and any face could be rotated.

“I wonder if I can make them all the same color,” he whispered to himself and began twisting it. He got close that night, with 6 squares out of place. He set it down when Dr. Sanders opened the door, faint light from outside trickling into the room.

“Where is Four?”

“Under his bed.”

“You have mattresses, he cannot get under it.”

“You underestimated his desire to be underneath of a bed,” Two shrugged, yawning. For some reason he could never fall asleep as quickly or stay asleep as long as the others. Well, he had very little idea on how Dr. Sanders slept. Poorly, if his late night check-ins were any measure. Dr. Sanders grumbled something under his breath and handed Two a plastic container. A peek inside revealed a piece of toast. He opened the container and nibbled at it, watching as Dr. Sanders gave containers to One, Three, and Four. Dr. Sanders left again, and Two filled his cup up with water.

***************

Draw yawned again before taking the last bite of his toast. He relaxed onto the mattress, planning to sleep just a little bit longer before the door opened.

“One, come with me,” Scalie said.

“Theep,” he grumbled, burying his face in a pillow.

“Do not argue, come.”

“No,” he said, his words muffled by the pillow. He yelped in surprise as his wrist was grabbed and he was pulled out of the room. He rolled his eyes and followed without another complaint.

“Sit,” Scalie ordered. One did, brightening now that he had stuff to focus on, like that pretty picture behind Scalie’s head.

“Read this out loud,” he said, pushing a piece of paper towards him. Scribbles filled the page.

“Whath read?”

“Interesting. Come,” Scalie said and brought him back to the room.

***************

Two sat down in the chair when directed. This room had more furniture than he had ever seen before. Besides the table and chair, there were paintings and more tables filled with things he had no words for.

“Read this out loud,” Dr. Sanders said, pushing a piece of paper towards him.

“Nate was a...cat?”

“Yes, cat, continue.”

“Nate was a cat. He liked to wander his house. He lived with one human. The human had a dog, too. Nate didn’t like the dog. She was big, smelly, and brought mud into his house, not to mention all of the drool.”

“Interesting. Read this,” Dr. Sanders pushed a new paper to him.

“Vision is the result of several...p...h...ph...photo...photo-receptors?” Two looked up at Dr. Sanders for confirmation, and continued after the resulting nod, “Vision is the result of several photo-receptors. Humans have three that detect color, one for red light, one for blue light, and one for green light. These are called cones. They also have one that only detects light. These are called rods. Cotorblidness...colorblindness is the result of cones being mutated or absent.”

“Interesting. Write down what I say here,” he continued, handing him a piece of paper and a crayon. Two immediately gripped the crayon with the correct pencil grip.

“All cells contain deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA. DNA codes for traits, such as hair and eye color. DNA is hereditary. Children inherit half of their DNA from their father and half from their mother,” Dr. Sanders said. Two scribbled furiously to get everything down, then turned the paper so that Dr. Sanders could read it. He had spelled every word correctly.

“Interesting.”

“That’s the third time you’ve said that.”

“I’m already aware of that fact.”

“Who are my mother and father?”

“You do not have any.”

“Then where did my deoxyribonucleic acid come from?”

“You are clones of me.”

“Interesting,” Two said. Dr. Sanders didn’t like the look on his face. It held too much speculation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2318-2 is the only one capable of reading and writing. This hints to the possibility that the others have a talent they inherently know.
> 
> 2318-3 called 2318-1 his sibling today. 2318-2 said “I was not aware that anything you taught me should not be shared” when questioned about it.


	4. Testing

Pinky watched as Cheek spun the final row in the color cube. All of the sides were the same color. It was the first time any of them had seen them be all the same color since Snake had given it to them. Cheek looked around and gave Pinky a tiny smile before tossing the cube to him. He fumbled for a moment before catching it.

“Mix it up. I want to solve it again.”

“But it looks so pretty this way.”

“Fine, give it back.”

Pinky pouted and spun the faces of the cube, then tossed it back to Cheek, who managed to trap the cube between his chest and his hands. He spun the cube around, then started messing with the columns.

“Thibling! I made a picture!” Thumb called, holding up a picture. Pinky climbed onto the mattresses they had stacked together to make a taller bed that they had heaped all the blankets on to. Cheek had only agreed to donate his to the cause after extracting a promise from them to give it back after dinner.

“What is it?”

“A monther!”

“Why does it look like Snake?”

“Doeth not!”

“Does to!”

“Doeth not!”

“Does to!”

“Three, come with me,” Snake opened the door. He held a piece of wood with a paper on it. Were they doing reading again?

“Coming,” Pinky replied, climbing down from the mattress.

“One, I expect those mattresses to be back on the floor when I return,” he said, then closed the door after them.

“What are we doing?” Pinky asked, having to run a little to keep up with Snake. His legs made him too fast. It was unfair. In any case, Snake didn’t reply. He opened a door, and Pinky looked around.

“Hey! This is where I was before I met Cheek!”

“That is correct.”

“Only now there’s a table.”

“...that is a chair.”

“Oh,” Pinky said, and realized he was right. When he got closer the grey blob solidified into a chair shape.

“Sit.”

“What are we doing?” he asked, sitting down and craning his head to watch the white and tan blob move around the room.

“An experiment. Stay still. When I tap your knee, try to guess where I am in the room.”

“Okay,” Pinky replied, nodding vigorously. Snake silently waited until he was still, then blindfolded him and gave him noise cancelling headphones. He tapped Pinky’s knee and moved towards the left corner of the room.

“Uh, you’re going that way,” Pinky pointed at Snake, “Now you stopped. You’re walking towards the door. You stopped. You’re coming towards me. You’re standing behind me. Oh, we’re done?” Pinky asked as Snake pulled off the headphones and blindfold.

“Yes. Why did you guess the locations you did?”

“It felt right?”

“Interesting, come.” Draw looked up sheepishly when the door opened. He had been so consumed in his drawing that he had forgotten to put the mattresses back on the floor. Sibling climbed up into the nest, and they peeked over the edge of the blankets at Scalie.

“One, come with me,” Scalie said. Draw slowly climbed down from the pile and followed him.

“What are we doing?”

“An experiment. Sit,” Scalie replied, opening a door to a plain room with a chair in it. Draw did, turning himself and the chair to watch him as he moved around the room.

“Stay still. When I tap your knee, try to guess where I am in the room,” he continued, and Draw fidgeted impatiently with his hands as he was blindfolded and given noise cancelling headphones.

“How is thith a fair teth? I can’t even thee or hear you!” Draw complained when he felt a tap on his knee, “Um. Going to the door? Another corner? Oh, you’re back.” Scalie took off the headphones and blindfold.

“Where were you going?”

“To the left corner, then to the door, then back to you.”

“Oh. How wath I thupposed to gueth that!”

“Come.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2318-3 and 2318-2 were able to accurately predict my movements.  
> 2318-2 revealed he had seen me walking the pattern and had asked 2318-3 about the test, and, in his own words, "therefore I deduced that was a likely path". I believe it was more guesswork than he let on.  
> 2318-3 accurately made the observation he had been in the room previously. The others made no comment on it.  
> 2318-3 called a chair a table. I believe his vision needs correction.


	5. Lessons

Anxiety peered out from under the mattress. Logic was messing with the color cube again, and Creativity was showing Morality another drawing. The nicknames he had given them were stupid, really, but they made a little bit of sense. He was the anxious one, Logic was the logical one, Creativity was the creative one, and Morality...was the kind one. It had made more sense when he first came up with it. Deceit was the most fitting one. Anxiety was still convinced he was trying to hide something from him, from all of them, really. The door swung open and three paper bags were deposited on the ground. Usually there were four, one for each of them. Logic was the first to approach and claim a bag. He opened it up and pulled out a tupperware of food.

“Why are there only three bags?” he asked. Deceit left without answering. Logic grabbed all of the bags and spread the containers out around him. Creativity and Morality came over, watching him intently as he split the food into fourths, then put one fourth in the large part of one container, one fourth in the smaller dividers of the container, and put the remaining two fourths in their own container.

“One, do not eat it all,” he said sternly, and passed the container with half of the food to him and Morality. He grabbed the other two, deposited one near Anxiety’s head, then retreated to the corner with the remaining container. Anxiety blinked at the food, then slowly ate it.

******

“Alright, hold still,” Dr Sanders said, bringing over a tray with a variety of needles.

“What are those?” Two asked, eyeing them nervously.

“Vaccinations. While it’s very likely immunity to diseases carried over, it won’t be harmful to be sure.”

“Could I have a book?”

“What?”

“Could I have a book?”

“I heard you properly the first time. Why do you want one?”

“I enjoy reading.”

“Hold still,” was Dr Sanders’s only reply.

******

“Okay, so this is the alphabet. Each letter makes different sounds depending on what letters are near it or for no apparent reason,” Logic sat on the mattress stack, giving a lesson on reading. He went through the most common sounds for each of the letters before handing a picture book to One and Three, who were both bouncing on their toes in eagerness. Anxiety was surprised when a book landed near his face.

“Dr Sanders gave me picture books, so if you can’t tell what a word is, then look at the picture and surrounding words for clues," Logic added.

Anxiety slowly flipped open the book and started sounding out the words and checking them against the pictures until he could read the whole page, “In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.” He frowned. That didn’t make any sense to say, but the picture seemed to go along with it. He turned the page and repeated the process until he had gotten through the whole book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two  
>  Vaccination-An injection of weak bacteria used to “train” a person’s immune system so that it is better equipped to fight future infections of the same kind.  
>  Dr. Sanders gave me four books today. They were silly, so I gave them to the others to learn from. I kept the one titled Where the Wild Things Are, though. I gave One Boom Chicka Boom Boom, Three The Rainbow Fish, and Four The Very Hungry Caterpillar. One and Three bothered me almost constantly for help, while Four mouthed the sounds until he figured them out.  
>  Why am I the only one who didn’t need to be taught to read or write?  
>  I solved the color cube again.


	6. Glasses

Ethan looked down at the table, swirling a glass of water in his head. He wore contacts, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume they would need them, too. Why didn’t he factor that in earlier? Foolish, stupid, he needed to be more careful. He took out his contacts and put them in their case. It wouldn’t be suspicious if he went to the eyeglass place and got say, two pairs of glasses and two pairs of contacts using his actual prescription, right? The only problem was that his eyesight was horrible enough that he couldn’t drive without them, and it might have been suspicious if he showed up with them on. So, get someone to drive him under the excuse he lost his contacts. It would set him back a day on testing for their abilities, but that could be accounted for, he supposed. He dug out his phone and called the first contact.

“Ethan?”

“Joan! You have to help, I can’t find my contacts anywhere!”

“Woah, calm down Sir-I-Accidently-Fell-Into-A-Fire-Without-Anyone-Noticing-and- Burned-Half-my-Face-off.”

“I can’t see, Sir-Makes-Fun-of-a-Practically-Blind-Guy.”

“I’ll be there in 5, okay? Under the condition you let me pick out an outfit for you from Hot Topic while we’re waiting for them to make the lenses.”

“No Disney.”

“I will make no such promises.”

“I hate you.”

“I love you, too. Be there in 5.”

 

About two hours later Ethan was collecting the glasses and contacts in a highly unprofessional pair of purple plaid shorts that were barely longer than his underwear and an Ariel tank top. The person who helped fit the glasses had the courtesy not to make any comment on his outfit.

“You really don’t want to be left without eyeglasses again, huh?”

“Oh, I don’t think you gave me good reason not to want to hitch a ride to the mall for glasses,” Ethan replied, waving a hand at the outfit. Joan laughed, and they bantered back and forth the rest of the way back to Ethan’s house. Two twisted the color cube. He had solved one face, and was desperately trying to solve the others without breaking it up. He switched a corner piece into position and looked with satisfaction at the unbroken red face. His stomach rumbled, and he put aside the cube for a moment. Four was sleeping, and One was drawing, as per usual, but Three was experimentally nibbling on some of the paper. He started to open his mouth to comment, but the door swung open. He shot to his feet, hurrying over. One and Three came expectantly to the door, too, and Four was awakened by the noise. Dr. Sanders looked at the upturned faces and gave a tiny nod.

“I bought glasses and contact lenses. You are not to break or lose them. You will not be getting a replacement, do you understand?”

Three heads bobbed in understanding. Dr. Sanders handed two small black cases to Two, and larger black ones to One and Three.

“I will return shortly with your lunches,” he said, and left. They opened the cases. One and Three put on the glasses, and gasped at the clarity of their visions. Two opened the cases he had been handed, finding two slivers of glass in each. He carefully picked one up and looked through it, seeing the world distort through it. These must be the contact lenses, he thought. He gave a glance to the others.

“One, could I trade you your glasses for a pair of contact lenses?”

“Why?”

“I would rather not have to touch my eye.”

“Ew! Gross! Keep your contact lenses away from me!” One squealed and ran away.

“I’ll take the contact lenses, then we can be twins! I don’t think Middle would want to touch his eyes.”

“That is true. Here,” Two handed a case of contacts to Three in exchange for the case of glasses. They carefully put them on, blinking at the unfamiliar feeling, then relaxing as they quickly adjusted to it. Two put the glasses in front of Four just as Dr. Sanders came back in with four paper bags. Three brought Four’s bag to them, and everyone except for Three(who was now drawing with One) went back to what they were doing before Dr. Sanders came in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They traded until 2318-2 and 2318-3 had contact lenses while 2318-1 and 2318-4 had glasses  
> 2318-4 managed to pop the eye piece out of his glasses, then take a pencil and mark on it until they were unusable. I confiscated the lenses, but let him keep the empty frames to see what happened.  
> The frames were made into a puppet by 2318-1
> 
> OOC
> 
> A little bit of browsing on Hot Topic’s website brought me these gems if anyone is wondering what exactly Deceit was wearing: https://www.hottopic.com/product/purple-plaid-hi-rise-skinny-shorts/11664278.html?cgid=sun#sz=60&start=327  
> https://www.hottopic.com/product/disney-the-little-mermaid-part-of-your-world-wash-girls-tank-top/11927994.html?cgid=sun#sz=60&start=1


	7. Others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:  
> -Mention of anorexia in a joking manner before the line of astrixes  
> -Remus present before astrixes and very briefly referred to after.

Evan shoved something off of his desk and heard something shatter. He shot to his feet at the exact time his assistant appeared, slowly lifting a bar of deodorant to his mouth.

“Remus, not now,” he groaned, tearing through the piles on his desk to find that one stubborn set of notes for the report that was due-

“But I just-”

“No!”

“Oh, I just-”

“This is your paycheck! I am your employer! Get out of my office!” he shouted, waving a check in his face.

“But I only came to see if the esteemed Dr. Sanders wanted a snack! You know, I wonder what it would look like you didn’t eat for a week! Probably not much different than you do now.”

“Remus. I absolutely need the image of an anorexic version of myself in my head right now.”

“Oh, but what an interesting test that would be!”

“It would be very logical to perform a study on one test subject. It wouldn’t be dangerous or subjective at all. The project would get lots of funding.”

“Exactly! Who should I write to first?”

“Remus.”

“Oh, you went back to being sarcastic little snake? Actually, do you have a brother?”

“No.”

“Aw, it’s funny, last night I was thinking about killing mine, when I don’t have one!”

“I am absolutely sure you do not need to see a phyciatrist.”

“Check the paperwork! It’s not included in the benefits!”

“I’m not at all-and he hasn’t left for the next 5 seconds to hours,” Evan sighed, “I never wonder why I employ him.”

He looked back down at his desk, and the paper he had needed had floated to the top as if by magic. He recalled the casual gestures of the other around his desk, and decided it probably had been by the special magic Remus seemed to possess. He was interrupted by a grumble in his stomach. When was the last time he had eaten?

*****

Evan pulled open the door and took in the scene. One and Three were curled up together on a stack of three mattresses, Four appeared not to have moved, and Two was messing with the rubix cube next to the water dispenser. Two looked up at his entrance and produced an empty jug of water, shaking it to, presumably, demonstrate the lack of liquid contents. Evan remembered replacing that the last time he had given them food. How long had it been?

“Yes, yes, what else?” Evan snapped, his patience already out.

“Could I have books of a less childish nature?”

“What?”

“Could I-”

“I heard you the first time,” Evan huffed, dropping their meals at his feet and dragging a jug of water from where he kept a few stocked next to the door. Too stressed to properly refill the water dispenser, he stormed back to his office, where thankfully Remus had decided that he was in a ‘leave for 5 hours’ mood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two  
> Dr. Sanders gave me a book titled The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd and a series of 7 books called the Harry Potter series.  
> One insisted I read it out loud to them, and we spent more time than reading debating the possible murderers in the first book.  
> Neither of us guessed the murderer correctly.  
> What is England?
> 
> Summary of Chapter:  
> Evan is stressed about a report that's due soon. Remus comes in and they get into a brief argument before Evan calms down and Remus leaves. It's mentioned Evan doesn't remember when the last time he or the others ate. Two asks for books, and Evan leaves without responding.


	8. Candy

Two spun the column and solved the cube, then mixed it up and shifted through the colors again until it was solved again. It had been satisfying the first couple times, but now he wanted something else to solve. He looked up as the door opened to admit Dr. Sanders.

“Ah, you solved it. I was wondering how long it would take you.”

“It took me exactly 24 hours, not including breaks to solve it the first time. 7 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes, 6 seconds counting them.”

“You have had the cube for far longer than a week.”

“I have solved it multiple times.”

“Give me the cube.”

Two threw him the cube, and Dr Sanders mixed it up before tossing it back.

“Solve it.”

Two looked down at the cube in his hand and began solving it while Dr. Sanders replaced the water and hunted down the tupperware from their last meal. Finally he held it up, completely solved.

“Have any of the others solved it?”

“No.”

“Interesting.”

“Are we doing anything today?”

“...yes,” he replied, but left the room without doing anything.

*****

Draw looked at the little sweet in front of him. Scalie had given him a series of candies and he had picked his favorite, which was easily a fruit-flavored chocolate.

“I’m going to leave for 15 minutes. You can eat it, but if you haven’t when I come back, I will give you another one.”

“Okay,” he said, and Scalie left the room. He tried his hardest. He bounced and fidgeted, imagined what it would be like in Harry Potter, imagined what they would taste like, walked around the table, tried to see under the crack in the door, imagined what they would taste like, said the ABC’s backwards, imagined what they would taste like, and finally touched it with his tongue. Once he had one taste it was too much, and he looked sheepishly at Scalie when he came in.

//////

Two looked around the room he was in. It was the same room he had first read in, not counting each other’s name tags. Dr. Sanders had lined up 10 candies and told him to try one of each. They were all a bit sweet for his taste, but there was a fruit-flavored chocolate that wasn’t bad. He watched as Dr. Sanders lined up the same candies again.

“Which was your favorite?”

“The fruit-flavored chocolate,” he replied, pointing it out. Dr. Sanders took away the rest.

“I’m going to leave for 15 minutes, you can eat it, but if you haven’t when I come back, I will give you another one.”

Two nodded and watched Dr. Sanders leave, then walked over to the bookshelf and examined the titles. He came to one on psychology, flipped through it, then put it back and chose one on famous experiments. His lips quirked a tiny bit as he saw an entry on something called the Marshmallow Experiment and realized this was what he was recreating. He filed away the names of countries and officials to mull over later and add to what was now ‘Outside’ in his mind. Something bothered him about the experiments, and he flipped back to the ethics paragraph he had skipped over when he first opened the book. Among the principals was informed consent to participate in the experiment. He put the book back and was back in the chair when Dr. Sanders arrived to find him shaking in front of the untouched candy. He delivered another candy and took him back to the room where One was waiting eagerly. Two let One have both candies.

//////

Pinky thought for a moment when Snake asked him which one he liked the most. They were all so good, but the fruit-flavored chocolate had been a bit tastier. He grabbed the chocolate, and Dr. Sanders took the rest of the candies.

“I’m going to leave for 15 minutes, you can eat it, but if you haven’t when I come back, I will give you another one.”

“But what if I want to give one to Middle, too?” he asked, but Snake had already left. He entertained himself by thinking of ways to split the chocolate into three pieces. He still hadn’t settled on a way when Snake came back.

“Can I have another so Middle can have one, too?” he asked.

“No,” he replied, handing him a single chocolate and taking him back. Cheek assured Pinky that he didn’t need the chocolate and that everyone was doing the same experiment. He had apparently given both of his to Thumb, so Pinky relented, giving Thumb one and leaving the other where Middle was bound to find it.

//////

Anxiety took a tiny nibble out of each of the sweets. He thought for a moment at the question of which his favorite was. If Deceit ever needed him to eat something that was clearly poison, then he would probably hide it in one of these, so even if he liked the fruit-flavored chocolate the best, it would be better to pick something that’s color would be easily affected and only tasted like sugar, as well as being easy to pull apart if it was in a container. He pointed at the marshmallow, which seemed to surprise Deceit. Deceit pulled the rest of the candies away.

“I’m going to leave for 15 minutes, you can eat it, but if you haven’t when I come back, I will give you another one.”

Anxiety pulled the marshmallow into a dozen tiny bits and stuck a single piece on his tongue. When Deceit came back he sighed, made Anxiety collect the pieces and weighed them against a handful of different marshmallows. He decided that the pieces were probably a full marshmallow and gave Anxiety a marshmallow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-2 only ate half his food. Is he sick?  
> -He was probably full from the candies.  
> -He’s eating normally again.


	9. Chats

Two scribbled down what he knew of ‘Inside’. From what he could remember, there was the room they were in, to the left were two experiment rooms, to the right were the room he had been in previously, an unopened door, and another experiment room, along with a set of stairs which lead to several unopened doors and the reading room. It wasn’t much. It wasn’t enough. He hated it. He tucked it neatly within his notes, glancing at the last entry, which filled him with something hot. He liked that feeling. It felt like a feeling of change. He looked at the entry again. _"I found a statement on ethics in research. One of them is informed consent. You must know the procedures and any potential outcomes before you partake and you can refuse to participate. I ~~think~~ believe that is why we’ve only seen Dr. Sanders down here. I don’t believe anyone besides him knows we exist."_

He looked up to where One and Three were laughing over something, then to where Four was sitting on his mattress, on top of it for once, and walked over to him.

“It is nice to see you on top of the mattress. I do not see how you find it so comfortable beneath it.”

Four’s lips quirked into a half-smile and moved his hands, then jerked them to a stop and sat one them.

“Is that a language?”

Four stared intently at the ceiling, rocking slightly forward as if he wanted to get closer to it.

“That’s not an answer.”

Four sighed and nodded.

“Why haven’t you talked with that language?”

Four looked around and snagged a piece of paper and marker, mouthing the words slowly before writing out, ‘I don’t like Dr. Sanders.’

“I do not find his presence preferable, either. Can you teach me how to speak with your hands?”

Four looked uncertain and glanced at the note.

“I promise not to communicate with Dr. Sanders using your language.”

He gave a tiny nod and mouthed more words before writing them, ‘What do you want to say?’

“Just our names first?”

Four showed him the signs for 1-4, then the sign he’d made up for Dr. Sanders, which was the sign for lie with a D hand-shape.

“One, Two, Three, Four, Dr. Sanders?” Two asked, mimicking the signs, continuing after the resulting nod, “What about 8 and experiment?”

Four did the two signs, although his face betrayed confusion as to why Two wanted to know those words.

_Experiment 2318_ , Two signed.

Four nodded slowly.

“What about thank you?” Four signed it to him.

_Thank you, Four_.

Four gave a small nod.

“Do you think One and Three would give me my mattress, blanket, and pillow back now if I asked?”

Four gave a soundless laugh and shook his head.

“Well, if past trends hold true, Dr. Sanders will burst into the room in about 5 seconds, drop our dinners, then drag in a water jug muttering something about a guy named Remus. Then they’ll be required by our agreement to give me my things back.”

Exactly 5 seconds later Dr. Sanders kicked open the door, dropped four paper bags and pushed a water jug in to replace the empty one Two had set next to the door, muttering under his breath.

“One, Three, I want my bedding back.”

“Get it yourthelf,” One yelled, laying claim to a bag.

“One, be nice, I’ll help you get it down, Two!” Three said, grabbing the rest and bringing it over to Two and Four.

“Thank you, Three.” They wrestled the mattress down and Two straightened it into position. They ate in silence before falling asleep, first One and Three, then Two, and finally Four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-2 and 2318-4 seem to be forming a bond  
> -I have been unable to work with them as much as I want  
> -Progress must be made


	10. Theoreticals

Draw looked at Scalie. He was seated across from him, his head resting on his chin.

“How big is the world?” Scalie asked, looking down at him with an expression Draw didn’t like very much.

“Big? I mean, thereth uth, then theret the thuff from the bookth. Hogwarth theem ath big ath here, at leath.”

“How many people are in it?”

“Alot?”

“Let’s imagine something. There’s something that’s going to destroy the world. You have three options. You can save 5 people, you can save everyone but die in the process, or you can stop it, survive, but half of the world dies.”

“I thave everyone and not die! I’m like Harry Potter! The boy who liveth!”

“That’s not an option.”

“I’ll make it be one!”

*****

Two looked at Dr. Sanders. He was staring at a spot on the wall over Two’s shoulder, presumably thinking about something.

“How big is the world?” Dr. Sanders asked.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Do you mean the observable universe, Earth, or what I have personally seen?”

“Let’s take the earth.”

“Earth has a circumference of roughly 24,900 miles give or take a couple depending on where you measure the circumference from.”

“How d-Nevermind. How many people are on it?”

“I’m unsure.”

“Guess.”

“1 million?”

“Let’s imagine something. There’s something that’s going to destroy the world. You have three options. You can save 5 people, you can save everyone but die in the process, or you can stop it, survive, but half of the world dies.”

“May I ask for clarification?”

“On what?”

“In the first option, am I automatically included or would I have to name myself as one of the 5 if I wanted to survive?”

“You would have to name yourself as one of the 5.”

“Then I save myself, One, Three, Four, and Agatha Christie.”

“Agatha Christie is currently dead. Choose someone else.”

“Is J. K. Rowling still alive?”

“Yes.”

“Then I choose to save her.”

“Why?”

“Well, if stopping the threat would kill me if I did it in time to save everyone, I would probably be injured in stopping it in time to save half of everyone, and I don’t know the other people, so there’s not much sense in injuring myself to save them. I wish to know an author, and to my knowledge we are boys and you are a man, so I would like to meet a woman.”

“Why wouldn’t you save me?”

“Why should I?”

“I gave you life, and I provide for your needs and interests.”

“Not all of our interests.”

“What interest have I not satisfied?”

“I would like to see someone who doesn’t look like me. I would like to see and feel the rain. I would like to see and feel the grass. I would like to see and feel the wind. I would like to see and feel the waves. I would like to see and feel a tree. I would like to-”

“Enough.”

*****

Pinky looked up at Snake. He seemed deep in thought, and Pinky didn’t want to interrupt him, but he wanted to do something besides sit there.

“How big is the world?” Snake finally asked. His gaze made Pinky squirm a little as he thought about it.

“Smallish? I mean, it has us and whoever wrote those books, right? Cheek said that the books weren’t real but were written by other people who imagined those worlds.”

“How many people are in it, then?”

“Thumb, Middle, Cheek, you, Remus, J. K. Rowling, Agatha Christie, Eric Carle, Mauruce Sendak, Marcus Pfister, and Bill Martin Jr, so there’s gotta be at least 12.”

“Alright. Let’s imagine something. There’s something that’s going to destroy the world. You have three options. You can save 5 people, you can save everyone but die in the process, or you can stop it, survive, but half of the world dies.”

“Oo, ah, I save half of the world.”

“Why?”

“It feels like the best? I mean, it’s bad that people die, but at least not everyone dies, and I can help out people who were hurt?”

*****

Anxiety fidgeted with the hem of his clothing. Deceit was being quiet, which was, big surprise, making him anxious.

“How big is the world?” Anxiety pointed to his mouth.

“Gesture.” Anxiety put his arms out to both sides as far as they could reach.

“How many people are there?”

Anxiety kept his arms there for a second, then let them fall back to his lap.

“Let’s imagine something. There’s something that’s going to destroy the world. You have three options. You can save 5 people, you can save everyone but die in the process, or you can stop it, survive, but half of the world dies.”

Anxiety held up four fingers.

“There are three options, not four.”

Anxiety shook his head and grabbed his clipboard and pen. Deceit stood up and Anxiety kept it where they could both see it. He mouthed the sounds as he wrote out, I do nothing.

“You do nothing.”

Anxiety nodded.

“You let the entire world, including yourself, One, Two, and Three, die.”

Anxiety nodded again.

“You could have stopped it, but you let everyone die.”

Anxiety nodded.

“Why?”

Anxiety stared down at the table.

“Answer me.”

Anxiety shrunk farther in on himself.

“Answer me!”

Hands slammed down on the table inches from Anxiety’s face. Slowly he picked up the pen and shakily wrote out the words, There’s no space for 5 of you. Not enough space for even one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Each chose a different option.  
> -2318-4 has ceased communication with 2318-2  
> -2318-1, 2318-2, and 2318-3 have pushed two mattresses into a corner and stood the remaining mattress up on its narrow side to form a smaller shelter.
> 
> OOC:  
> Updates will now be on Tuesdays.


	11. STAAR

Draw stared at the thick packet of papers in front of him. The top one said it was an 8th grade Science FSA practice test, whatever in quidditch that meant. There were two books which said they were called a Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, along with a calculator and a small army of pencils, stacked next to them.

“You have this day to complete all of these. I will return every 4 hours.”

“But what ith it?”

Scalie paused and looked at him, “...O.W.L. practice.”

“Hogwart ‘thupposed to be fun!”

“It’s a school.” Scalie left before Draw could retort. He flipped open the booklet to look at the first question.

“A partial grathland food web is thown. Which of the following describe a relationthip in the grathland? What kind of quetion is that? Doeth the butterflie like the ant? Oh, like what eat what. Butterflie liking ant ith better,” he muttered, circled an answer that he didn’t read, then drew a picture of a butterfly and an ant with a heart over their heads. He worked through the rest in a similar fashion, then threw the booklet against the wall when he saw there was a Math practice test under that.

*****

Two glanced around the room. It seemed nothing had changed since the last time he had been in here, except for the dictionary, thesaurus, calculator, pencils, and small stack of booklets that were arranged neatly on the desk.

“You have all day to complete every booklet. The answers are not in the books, so don’t try to find them. I will return every 4 hours.”

Two nodded his understanding, then, after Dr. Sanders left, stood up and walked over to the shelf to verify for himself that none of the books was an answer key. Finding nothing, he walked back to the desk and started in on the science booklet.

“A partial grassland food web is shown. Which of the following best describes a relationship in this grassland? None of those particularly fit, but D doesn’t have information that outright contradicts the diagram, so D,” he mumbled to himself as he filled out the test, then started in on the math, which he thankfully found much easier.

*****

Pinky eyed the stack of papers uncertainly.

“What if I don’t finish them all?”

“Unfinished answers are counted as incorrect,” Snake replied, then left the room before Pinky could ask any more questions. He opened the top packet and squinted at the question.

“A partial grassland food web is shown. Which of the following best describes a relationship in this grassland? What’s that supposed to mean? Oo! Does the butterfly have a crush on the ant! Oh, it means things like predator/prey relationships. Dangit, I like the idea of the butterfly and the ant being in a relationship better. Alright, uh, C maybe? Or D? Yeah, I’ll go with D,” Pinky mumbled as he circled his answer and moved on to the next problem. The rest of the test passed similarly, and he groaned when he saw a math test under it. He picked it up with a sigh and kept working.

*****

Anxiety glared up at Deceit, not paying attention to the stack of papers which he had said he had to complete.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Anxiety’s gaze somehow narrowed even more.

“I’ll be back in 4 hours.” Deceit left the room. Anxiety waited a few minutes, counting along to his speeding heart, then tested the door handle. It gave way soundlessly and he cracked open the door. The hallway was silent except for the hum of the air conditioner. He took a deep breath as silently as he could and slowly stepped out of the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOC: So when I went to start editing the chapter prior to posting, I realized that in Florida they probably wouldn't use something called the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness(STAAR), so I replaced it with their standard test, Florida Standards Assessments(FSA), but I decided to keep the title because it sounds cooler. I also don't know if they follow the same pattern of when they take the test since I've only ever taken STAAR tests, but I don't have time to research that right now. I also used a question from a past STAAR test, but I'm assuming other states learn the same things around the same time.


	12. Continuation

Anxiety swallowed thickly as he walked down the corridor. His heart threatened to leap out of his mouth, but he kept going. The plain walls threatened to close in on him as he pressed his ear against a closed door and heard mumbling inside. He darted to the next door, where he heard more mumbling, but was fairly sure it was Creativity from the tone. The next door was silent. He carefully opened the door and saw someone at the desk, Logic, probably. He closed the door and put his ear to the next one. He cracked open the door and saw Deceit jump to his feet. He slammed the door shut and bolted, not paying any attention to where he was going.

“Get back here!” Deceit grunted as pounding footsteps sounded behind him. Anxiety tried desperately to speed up, then froze as a wall that had been several feet in front of him jumped in front of him. He grunted as he slammed into the wall and fell. He pushed himself up on his hands, waiting for the world to stop swimming. He heard cursing and tried to blink away the black that was flooding his vision, but everything went soft and dark.

*****

“It’th only been 4 hours?” Draw moaned as Scalie came in, leaning back in his chair, which toppled in a clatter.

“Ow,” he muttered, standing up and leaving the chair where it was, “Bad chair.”

“It’s been 5 hours.”

“What? You thaid you were coming back in 4 hours!”

“External events demanded my attention, but that’s of no importance. How far along are you.”

“Done.”

“With every packet?”

“No, I got bored. I did the science and part of the math.”

“You can’t get a job without enough OWLs.”

“But this ith practith.”

“Someone wise once said ‘Practice like you’ve never won.’”

“‘And perform like you’ve never loth,’ but thith ithn’t a performance.”

“How do you know the ending to that saying?”

“I…” Draw frowned, trying to remember who had told him it, but only came up with a white rectangle with that on it, “I dunno.”

“...continue working,” Scalie said, dropping a paper bag of food on the desk.

*****

“It’s been 5 hours, 24 minutes, and 39 seconds since I started,” Two said simply as Dr. Sanders came in without looking up from the reading test.

“That’s correct.”

“Why didn’t you return in 4 hours as you said you would.”

“External events demanded my attention.”

“Did it have to do with Remus?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“It’s of no importance. Continue working.”

“I never stopped,” Two pointed out, circling an answer and moving on to the next question. Dr. Sanders quietly left a paper bag of food on his desk and left.

*****

“There you are! It’s only been 4 hours?” Pinky asked, closing the booklet he had been working on as Snake entered.

“It’s been five hours.”

“Why weren’t you here an hour ago?”

“External events demanded my attention.”

“What happened?”

“It’s of no importance.”

“You’re lying.”

“What evidence do you have?”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Nothing and everything.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Continue working,” Snake said, putting a paper bag on Pinky’s desk.

“Are you coming back?”

“I’ll be back in about 3 hours.”

“Okay.”


	13. Rest

Draw threw the packet of papers across the room after circling the final answer and rested his head on the desk. If he ever had a choice between answers A, B, C, and D ever again it would be too soon. He woke a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Scalie standing over him.

“Imawake,” he mumbled.

“I can see that, come on, you can sleep in your room.”

Draw stood and followed him without protest, crawling into the little shelter they had finally convinced Word to help them build. He curled up and fell back asleep without taking notice of anything.

*****

Two finally finished with his tests and left them stacked on the desk. He felt thoroughly burnt out, but he forced himself to finish off the food Dr. Sanders had given him and walked to the bookshelf, pulling out a book on astrology. He woke to a tap on his shoulder and looked up into Dr. Sanders face. He winced as he rotated his neck and looked down at the page he fell asleep over, about the nearest star system.

“Put that back. You can sleep in your room.”

“So it’s our room now, not the room?”

“One would think that your cognitive functions would be slower directly after being woken.”

“One would think I was being boring and that I should join him in making art.”

“One as in someone, not your...roommate.”

“That’s not the word you were going to use.”

“So what if it’s not. It’s the word I used.”

“I think you care for us.”

“Lies.”

“You’re right. If you really did care for us, maybe you’d let us see outside. Unless there’s a reason we can’t. Maybe a reason that could get you messed up with the law and the scientific community,” Two calmly shelved the book, “But that can’t be it, right?”

*****

Pinky forced himself through the last questions, then curled up on the floor under the table, exhausted from all the work. Doors...slamming into it...it was in front of me...wasn’t it?...dark Pinky awoke, slamming his head into the table. He yelped and rubbed the spot, trying to slow his breathing. The door opened and Snake crouched down to look at him.

“You’re awake. Come, it’s time to go back.”

Pinky nodded shakily and stood up. He tried reaching for Snake’s hand, but he snatched it away. He crawled into the tent where Thumb was sleeping and Cheek looked ready to fall asleep, barely lifting his head at the disturbance.

“Hello, Three.”

“Do you know where Middle is?”

“He’s usually the last one to be brought back.”

“I know, but I feel like something’s wrong.”

“We’ll see soon.”

“No, you should go to bed, I’ll stay up to welcome Middle back.”

“Alright.”

“Can I hold your hand?”

“Yes.” Pinky curled up between Thumb and Cheek, gently reaching out for Cheek’s hand. Thumb shifted and his toes gently brushed the bottom of Pinky’s feet. Pinky gently re-adjusted so that their feet touched. He tried to stay awake until Middle returned, but barely a minute had passed until he was swept under with the tide of sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-1 scored mastery in Reading and failed every other test. I suspect he didn’t take them seriously.  
> -2318-2 scored mastery in Math and Science and meets in all other categories  
> -218-3 scored mastery in Social Studies and meets in all other categories  
> -2318-4 did not complete his tests  
> -2318-1, 2318-2, and 2318-3 have become more lethargic  
> -A connection to 2318-4?


	14. Rabbits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heed the new tag(animal death).

Draw squealed as the carrier was opened and a bunny hopped out. He carefully held out his hand. The bunny sniffed it, and Draw pet it, admiring its sleek fur.

“Kill it.”

“What? No! Thith bunny ith even more innothent than Buckbeak!”

“Kill it.”

“No!”

“Kill it for a Horocrux.”

“I thaid no! I don’t need a Horocrux!”

“You’re weaker than I thought.”

Draw flinched and squeezed his eyes shut as he saw Scalie move towards the bunny. He heard a sickening crack and a shriek of pain. He peeked and saw the bunny hanging loosely from Scalie’s hands.

“You’re a monther! You’re worth than Umbridge! You’re worth than Voldemort!” Draw kicked at Scalie to no avail. Scalie was a tame word. He would find something, but Voldemort would have to work for now. Voldemort left Draw alone with the scent of death creeping up his nose.

*****

“Kill it.”

“Why?”

“Kill it.”

“That’s not an answer. I’m not going to take an animal’s life without a reason.” Two absentmindedly stroked the rabbit while looking calmly up at Dr. Sanders, keeping the boiling hot feeling deep in his stomach.

“I need to see how you react.”

“You need to find a better method.”

“Like what?”

“A model.”

“That wouldn’t create the emotional bond.”

Two looked down at the rabbit before speaking, “I think this little thing called ethics would still be called into play. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about morals or ethics, would you?”

“You’re beginning to behave like Four.”

“I don’t hide under my mattress.”

“Giving the tiniest bits of cheek while still playing very safely within the rules, although you venture farther than he does.”

“So, he’s alive.”

“At the moment.”

“Grievously injured, but alive.”

“You’ve sidestepped the issue of the rabbit.”

“Some of the principles of character lies.”

“Distraction.” “Valid technique.”

“You can’t decide what is and isn’t valid.”

“I suppose I can’t, but what gives you the right to? The technique worked.”

“For a time.”

“I’d say it worked well.”

“But I wasn’t permanently distracted.”

“No, but all that was needed was to distract until the test is over, correct?”

“The test isn’t over.”

“When is it over?”

“When the rabbit is dead.”

“Now we’re back to the why of things. Why is such a fascinating concept.”

“I’m not answering any more of your questions.”

“I’m not following any more of your commands.”

They stared at each other over the back of the rabbit, who was now content enough to hop slowly around, looking for food.

“You will kill the rabbit.”

“If you answer my question: why should I?”

“Because I told you to.”

“That’s not an acceptable answer.”

“Says who?”

“I, the person who asked the question, say that.”

They stared at each other again, locked in a battle of wills.

“I am...studying the effects of a new medicine and need to examine the body, but I grew fond of this particular subject.”

“What medicine is it?”

“It doesn’t have a name yet, but it may be crucial on the path to curing...cancer.”

He was lying. Two knew it. Two felt fur beneath his hands and kept his stare firmly on Dr. Sanders even as he felt the neck give with a sickening crack.

*****

Pinky gasped as a rabbit hopped out of the carrier.

“Hi, baby,” he whispered, gently stroking it. He cooed as it hopped.

“Kill it.”

“No! And it is a she. I’m going to name her… Patty.”

“You...have to kill it.”

“No, Patty’s going to live a long life, aren’t you Patty? Yes, you are!”

“You...what?”

“What do rabbits eat?”

“Grass, lettuce, and other vegetables.”

“Grass, will you bring in grass for her?”

“I...will.” “Do you promise?”

“Yes.”

“Pinky promise?” Pinky held out his finger.

“Where did you learn that?”

Pinky paused to think, “It was warm. A boy with a missing teeth and scraped up legs asked me if I promised to be his best friend forever. I said yes and he made me pinky promise.”

“What was his name?” Snake asked with an unreadable expression.

“Re...Rem? Remy? Remus! That was his name, Remus!”

“We’re done for the day.”

“You haven’t promised to bring grass in for Patty.”

Snake hooked his whole pinky with Pinky’s and Pinky picked up Patty to bring her back to the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-2 was the only one who killed his rabbit  
> -2318-3 named his and refused to leave without it.  
> -2318-3 recalled one of my memories.  
> -I gave 2318-3 rabbit food and instructions for the rabbit’s care  
> -It’s an experiment in responsibility


	15. Followup

Pinky cooed at Patty as she nibbled at the grass. Cheek had helped him to set up her water and food in the corner before retreating behind the instructions Snake had left. Thumb was resolutely working on his newest puppet and refused to acknowledge the presence of the rabbit.

“Do you think Middle will like Patty when he comes back?” Pinky asked the air.

“Yes,” Cheek replied without moving his gaze from the set of papers.

“Where do you think he is?”

“Somewhere within the lab, I believe.”

“But then why can’t we see him?”

“I think he’s severely injured.”

“But we could help cheer him up while he’s healing!” Pinky protested, hugging himself as if he could send telepathic hugs to his missing brother. Cheek didn’t respond, and Pinky went back to watching Patty.

*****

“How is your rabbit?”

“Dead, thank to you!” Red exploded. After spending a long time thinking about what to rename Zero, formerly known as Scalie, he had decided to upgrade all of their names and give everyone a code name.

“I meant Three’s rabbit.”

“Dandelion’th bunny ith doing good.”

“You have renamed all of us?”

“Yeth.”

“What are your names?”

“I’m not telling!”

“Why?”

“I’m not!”

“Names don’t mean anything.”

“Yes, they do!”

“Do they?”

“Yes!”

“You’re not lisping.”

“Are you thure?”

“Hm.”

“Don’t do that! Anther me!”

“We’re done for the day.”

*****

“How is your rabbit?”

“I was under the impression it was Three’s rabbit.”

“How is it, regardless?”

“Restless, and we need chew toys for her.”

Two watched as Dr. Sanders produced a chew ring, a wooden carrot, and a hay hut.

“May I ask you a question?” he asked, taking the items.

“That’s already a question.”

“May I ask you two questions?”

“You already have.”

“May I ask you four questions?”

“You’ve asked three.”

“What’s the point in letting us have Patty?”

“You’ve named the rabbit.”

“Three named the rabbit.”

“Three calls you Cheek.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Why does the rabbit have a consistent name?”

Two paused, running his hand alongside the toys in his hands, “I suppose we named each other before we established proper communication, then we never saw the reason to decide on one set of names.”

“How far back do you remember?”

Two squeezed his eyes shut. “I was...young. It was a colorful room. A person was showing me a book...she said they had a story in the scribbles, but I was drawn in by the pictures...it was the Very Hungry Caterpillar! And that person, that was your mother. That’s your memory. So what’s my first memory? I suppose, pain. Pain and darkness. I wasn’t…I was weak, a fly was buzzing past my ear. I barely had the energy to slap at it, but I caught it and I woke up...and I was floating. I felt...safe, so I fell back asleep.”

“You remember your creation.”

“Someone else has recalled your memories before this.”

“No.”

“Then why aren’t you intrigued by my recollection of something that never happened to me? Or are we something more than just clones? Something more akin to what a human Horcrux may have looked like in the Harry Potter universe?”

“We’re done for the day.”

*****

“How is your rabbit?”

“She’s good, but Cheek says she needs chew toys or her teeth will grow too long.”

“You didn’t read the information?”

“No, Cheek’s been holding it hostage,” Pinky laughed, “I kind of want to read it to see what he’s found so interesting, but he even sleeps with it, and he needs his rest. He always looks so worried. Kind of like Middle did before he disappeared.”

Snake slid a piece of paper over and Pinky clutched it tightly, his eyes blurring as he tried to read it as fast as he could, “Thank you,” he added after a moment, his eyes not pausing as he flipped to the backside.

“Huh, I see everything Cheek has been saying in here, but I don’t see why he finds it so important.”

“Perhaps he is trying to feel purpose in preserving life after his actions.”

“What do you mean?”

“Each of you were presented with a rabbit.”

“What happened to Thumb, Cheek, and Middle’s, then?”

“Thumb refused to kill his and I disposed of it. Cheek attempted to distract me, then disposed of his, Middle did not receive a rabbit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-1 has created new names for all of us. He's only referred to 2318-3 as Dandelion so far.  
> -The rabbit has a consistent name  
> -2318-2 remembers his creation  
> -2318-2 has not shared the instructions for the rabbit's care with the others.  
> -I informed 2318-3 of the outcomes of 2318-1 and 2318-2's rabbits  
> -Are their bonds strong enough to resist this tension?


	16. Fight

Two watched as Patty inspected the hay hut, then began to nibble on the wooden carrot he had set out for her. He looked up as Three came back into the room. He came over and sat, holding out more chew toys with trembling hands.

“Why?” Three asked. Two looked over at him.

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Your rabbit.”

“I never had a rabbit.”

“Snake said…”

“Dr. Sanders says a lot of things.”

“You killed your rabbit.”

The silence hung thickly in the air, then somehow Two found himself curled under Four’s empty mattress. Logic held that he had walked. Three’s empty gaze never left his face.

*****

Anxiety woke slowly. His entire body protested the small movement of opening his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling for a long moment, then started to push himself into a sitting position. Beeps filled the room. He heard them get faster as his breath started shortening. Where was he? Where was Morality and Logic and Creativity? What sort of trap was this?

“Can you breathe with me, buddy?” He looked up and his eyes filled with strange, strange, strange. No, no, no, wake up, wake up, where are they? He panicked, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes as if willing away the loud beeps and the stranger. He felt a tiny prick, then his thoughts began slipping away. He grasped for them, but everything felt hazy. He pulled his hands away from his face and stared at the stranger in front of him.

“Do you feel better?”

Than what? He felt giggly at that thought, but he managed to squash it down.

“Can you hear me?”

Anxiety slowly nodded his head.

“Great! How are you feeling?”

He gave a shrug.

“Do you know where you are?”

He shook his head slowly. He felt like he should know that.

“That’s okay. You’re in the hospital, you’re safe now.”

He stared blankly at the man.

“Are you still with me?”

He nodded.

“Can you write?”

He gave another nod and took the clipboard and pen pressed into his hands.

“What’s your name?”

_Four._

“Name.”

_My name is Four._

“Your name is Remus. How old are you?”

Anxiety struggled not to snort at being named after whoever made Deceit constantly mutter, then paused, thinking, then decided on answering,  _I'm not sure. I feel 1, 27, and 11 at the same time?_

“You’re 10 years old,” he said gently.

Anxiety shook his head, _I’m not! Did Sanders tell you that?_

“Your father told us that.”

_He lies._

“What does he lie about?”

_A lot of things._ Anxiety felt whatever it was that the man gave him start to wear off and desperately tore off the section of the page that was written on and looked around for somewhere to rip it apart and throw it away.

“Hey, can you breathe with me?”

Seeing nowhere to dispose of it Anxiety shoved the paper into his mouth, hiding when the man tried to grab it from him. He chewed it quickly, shoving the man off and kicking him away. It took a few tries to swallow, but he managed and stood there, panting from exertion. He sat back down and looked at the man with big eyes.

“Are you okay?”

Virgil nodded, feeling the paper travel down his throat, and hoped he wasn’t lying.

*****

“Why are we doing this again?” Pinky asked, pivoting to follow Snake’s movements. There was no response and Pinky gave a tiny sigh as he felt Snake change directions.

“I’m getting dizzy,” he said after a moment, to no avail. He was just pacing back and forth against the wall now. He marched along with him just to have something to do besides spin in circles. They seemed to just keep doing that forever until finally Snake stopped and instructed him to take off the blindfold. He pulled it off and blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted back to the fluorescent lights.

“You were taking strides of the exact same length as I was.”

“I was? I didn’t notice.”

“We’re done for the day.”

Pinky nodded and handed the blindfold back to Snake, following him back to the room.

“Hello, Three.”

“Hi, Cheek," Pinky heard the door close behind him, as he crossed the room to check on Patty. She was nibbling at the hay Pinky had set out for her before going with Snake that morning.

“Three, we need to talk.”

Pinky sat down and looked at him.

“Dr. Sanders is not a good person.”

“What do you mean! He gave me Patty! And...Thumb! He gave us each other, he didn’t have to! Doesn’t that make him good?”

“He wanted a control group.”

“How do you know!”

“He’s a scientist.”

“So?” Pinky asked, throwing his hands into the air.

“So he killed a rabbit! He made me kill a rabbit! He tried to make you kill Patty.”

“I...you’re lying!”

“I’m not!”

“Yes you are! Snake gave me Patty and told me how to take care of her! You just...you just wanted to feel important!”

“Dr. Sanders told you that.”

“So what if he did!”

“You’re brainwashed?”

“You’re crazy!”

Some time while they were yelling at each other they had stood up, and now they faced each other.

“Thumb?”

“No. I am getting to Hogwarth! I think it’th almoth time for my letter to come.”

Pinky and Cheek faced each other again.

“Stay away from Patty.”

Cheek stared at him. Tear tracks went down his face, shining in the far-too-strong light. Pinky felt similar tear tracks on his face.

“One, you’re delusional. Hogwarts doesn’t exist,” Cheek spat, then took up a hiding place under Middle’s empty mattress. Thumb claimed the mattress fort and Pinky stayed with Patty, wondering what exactly had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -I’m looking for a beta reader! I’m going to be doing NaNoWriMo with a whole bunch of Sanders Sides one-shots(think one 1k-2k fic a day) and I am definitely not going to have time to edit them before I unleash them on the internet. Even if you can’t edit all of them, I would appreciate what you can do. If you’re interested, please comment with somewhere I can contact you.


	17. Beyond

Two sat quietly in the dark. One and Three were asleep in the blanket fort and Patty was asleep in one of her huts. He pushed himself to his feet and tried the door. To his surprise, it swung open easily. He rushed back just to grab a piece of paper and a pencil. He crept down the hallway, writing down his thoughts as he saw them. He couldn’t be sure if they would be legible when he had enough light to read them by, but he felt better writing them down. He came to what he believed was the room with the books and put his ear to it. Hearing nothing, he inched it open. A desk light illuminated Dr. Sanders asleep over a stack of papers. He started as he heard someone moving outside and booked it back to the room before Dr. Sanders woke up. He was back at the room before he realized that he had dropped the paper and pencil.

*****

The doctors were amazed at how fast he recovered. The more he discovered, the more he didn’t like. He didn’t like that a new person was always there. He didn’t like the unchanging walls. He didn’t like the occasional painting drawing attention to the unchanging walls. He didn’t like the thin gown he was dressed in. He didn’t like the scratchy sheets that left him feeling like a bunch of insects were crawling on him and did nothing to block out the permanent chill of the building. He didn’t like the way they prodded the now-stump at the end of his left leg. Then Deceit came and he decided he would like nothing more than to stay there forever.

“He’s been making remarkable progress. He should be ready to go home soon,” a nurse said as Deceit was lead in. Deceit looked different. He wore baggy blue jeans and a t-shirt which somehow made his cheek and missing fingers stand out more starkly in contrast.

“How are you?” Deceit asked.

Anxiety shrugged, curling his fingers in his hair. The nurses didn’t like when he did that. He moved them to hold his lip where a vein pulsed through, reminding him he was alive and as well as he could be.

“Your brothers miss you.”

Anxiety knew that was a lie. Since when had they become brothers anyways? Creativity was free to call Morality sibling, but he wanted nothing to do with that label.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay? I have to go to work.”

Anxiety nodded, waiting for Deceit to leave. He watched the nurse lead Deceit away. He buried his face into the starchy, itchy pillow. Then an idea struck him. He was outside. Logic said they had to be a secret. So what if he let out the secret?

*****

“How long ago were you born?”

“I first awoke 11 months, 25 days, 3 hours, 45 minutes ago.”

“To the minute.”

“To the minute. May I ask why?”

“No. When did I take you out of the room?”

“To do this?”

“Yes.”

“1 hour, 4 minutes, 48, 49, 50, 51-”

“To the second.”

“To the second. Can I ask why?”

“No.”

“I can, actually. Why are we doing this?”

Two innocently met Deceit’s glare. He was tired of being asked when things happened. He knew the answers of course, but the joy of being right wore off fairly quickly.

“Alright, when did you sneak out?”

“I haven’t snuck out,” the lie came easily to Two. He had already decided that if he was suspected he would lie. Deceit spun the paper Two had dropped last night to Two, and Two decided he was very glad he had forgotten to write his name on it.

“This isn’t your handwriting?”

“Mine is much neater than that,” he replied. It was true now. He had spent the day since he had snuck out carefully writing out sentences, focusing on making his writing in stiff straight blocks.

“Write a sentence for me, the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Two did so, filing away the sentence to mule over later.

Deceit snatched it up and held the sentence next to the haphazard scribbles made in the dark. He sighed. “Do you recognize the handwriting?”

“No.”

“We’re done for the day.”

“Your pleasure,” Two said dryly, hopping off the chair and following him back to the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Someone snuck out. 2318-2 seems a likely suspect  
> -2318-2 did not sneak out  
> -Who snuck out? More importantly, how can I stop them?  
> -I put a water jug in front of it for now. I know they can move it, but it’s a temporary solution.  
> -2318-4 is making great progress.  
> -What makes them heal that quickly?


	18. Bandages

“Thomeone thnuck out? We can open the door?”

“That’s not the point.”

“Well, it wathn’t me.”

“Then who was it?”

“I don’t know. Dandelion and Alium had a fight, so it definitely wathn’t them.”

“How would having a fight eliminate them?”

“Why would they thneak out together after fighting?”

“So you’re saying they had to have acted individually.”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay.”

“Why do I feel like thereth thomething more here?”

“We’re done for the day."

*****

Pinky looked curiously up at Snake.

“Someone snuck out a few nights ago.”

Pinky paused. There was a tiny inkling in his gut that had been prodding him that Cheek was right, that Dr. Sanders wasn’t a good person. The variety of pointy looking objects around him wasn’t helping him feel more secure.

“It was me,” the lie fell from his lips without his permission. It took him a second to register that he had spoken at all. He could feel heat gathering in the tips of his ears at the lie even before he looked up at Snake.

*****

Rose woke to the sound of someone crying. He sat up, blinking in the darkness, as he tried to pinpoint the source. He quickly realized it was Dandelion. He had come in earlier with bandages on his arm.

“Dandelion?” he whispered.

“H-He’s like Umbridge,” Dandelion whispered back.

“Umbridge,” Rose’s half-asleep brain slowly kicked into gear, trying to discern the meaning.

“Detention with Umbridge.”

It clicked into place with a start and Rose pulled Dandelion into his lap.

“Cheek was right.”

“But why?”

“When h-he said Snake was a bad person.”

“No, why would he do thith to you! You’re the beth person, thereth no reathon-”

“I told him I snuck out.”

“You snuck out?”

“No, I lied. I lied. I lied I lied I lied. He lies. Am I like him?”

“You are nothing like him. I will fight anyone who thayth otherwithe.”

“Thank you.”

“Leth leave.”

“B-But we can’t! He’ll hurt you, too!” Dandelion sat bolt upright, “Stay safe. That way when Middle comes back we can all leave together.”

“Okay, Dandelion.”

“Promise me. Pinky promise.”

“I’ll thay thafe. And you promithe, too.”

They pinky promised, then lay back, cuddling together as they slowly drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -2318-3 confessed to sneaking out. I don’t believe they did, but it will serve my purposes.  
> -2318-1 and 2318-2 did not react to the bandages.


	19. Singing

Two twisted the rubix cube absentmindedly in his hands. One was hunched over a paper which seemed to be frustrating him and Three was playing with Patty.

“Ugh, can we talk?” One finally burst, looking up at Two.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t. We are conversing at the moment.”

“That’th not what I meant.”

“Then you should clarify.”

One looked back down at the paper and made another mark, “You thaid Hogwarth ithn’t real.”

“That is correct,” Two twisted a column to solve the fist face of the rubix cube.

“Zero said thoth teth were OWL practith.”

“You’ve renamed him?” Two finished the second row.

“Yeth, but you’re ignoring what I thaid!”

“Dr. Sanders lies.”

“You could thay that in rethponthe to anything! Why do you thay Hogwarth ithn’t real?”

“How old are you?”

“What?”

“How old are you?”

“I heard you the firth time. I dunno, 12?”

“When are people admitted to Hogwarts?”

“When they’re 11. Oh.”

Two slid the final row into position.

“Why are we here?”

“Dr. Sanders.”

“Right. Can we leave this place?”

“You’re not lisping.”

“I know.”

“Dr. Sanders won’t let us.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve heavily implied the prospect of leaving in previous conversations.”

“I want to leave. Oh! It’s an escape fit for a hero!”

“Yes, we can leave this place, or we can try at least,” Two replied, letting a faint smile dust his lips.

*****

“You only know that!”

“Do you know anything more?” Rose’s mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to find the correct words, “No, but you’re the smart one!”

“You’re the one who came up with the idea for escaping!”

“Me? You came up with the idea and recruited me!”

“When did I ever bring up escaping before you did?”

“When we were talking about Hogwarts?”

“I said that Dr. Sanders won’t let us leave, then you said you wanted to leave and it was a mission befitting of a hero,” Alium glared at Rose, his hands twitched slightly at his sides as though he was holding them back from punching something.

“You implied it!”

“I did no such thing!”

“Guys!”

Rose and Alium spun to face Dandelion, who seemed surprised. A quiet noise had joined the quiet buzz of the air conditioner.

“It sounds like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“It sounds like when you make different tones with your voice.”

“The word is singing.”

“Someone is singing.”

“Snake doesn’t sing.”

“Just because he hasn’t before-”

“No, Zero doesn’t sing. He’s too stuck up for that. Something I think Indigo-”

“I believe what you’re trying to say is that there’s someone else down here.”

“Down here?”

“You’ve never seen the stairs, have you?”

“Stairs?”

“There are stairs leading to a door.”

“You were the one that snuck out?”

“Not important right now.”

“Okay.”

_“It’s high time that I’ve dropped in.”_


	20. House

Anxiety blinked rapidly as he walked out of the building. Rather he half-stepped. He took a step onto his good foot, balanced on the stub, then swung his good foot up to the stub, moved the stub, balanced, swung his good foot up to the stub, rinse and repeat. The sweatpants and t-shirt he was wearing felt too big and bulky. Deceit had been walking in front of him, but Anxiety couldn’t see him anymore with the sheer amount of light hitting his eyes. Something dark was pushed onto his eyes and he blinked a couple more times before his eyes adjusted. He shifted the glasses so that they were in a more comfortable position, then looked up to see who had given them to him. He took them off when he realized they had been Deceit’s and settled on looking at the ground instead of ahead. He looked up just enough to keep the heel of Deceit’s shoes in his line of sight as they walked off. Deceit pulled open the door to a room.

He sat down on a bench, looking at the interior in confusion.

“Put on your seatbelt.”

Anxiety tried to burn a hole through the back of the seat in front of him, where Deceit was now sitting, with his eyes in return.

“This,” Deceit elaborated, grabbing a bit of fabric with a buckle near his shoulder and stretching it so that Anxiety could see, then it moved beyond his sight. Anxiety heard a click, then looked around, finding a buckle hear his shoulder. He pulled it and identical black fabric came out. He looked for something that would make a click noise, then found the other half of the buckle and snapped it closed. It clicked its approval and with a small lurch they started moving.

Anxiety dug his fingers into the seat as if that would help keep him from flying away. Deceit’s face haunting the mirror hanging between the two seats in front of him was not helping him feel more secure as they stopped moving, then started moving faster. He gritted his teeth together, then realized with a start that it didn’t actually feel like they were moving. He could see the colors moving past them outside, but other than the occasional speeding up or slowing down, it all felt smooth.

He looked at Deceit’s face in the mirror and saw his eyes glance up at him, then flick back to what was happening beyond the room. With another start he realized there was no wind. He raised a hand and tentatively reached towards the outside and it bumped into something clear. He slowly flattened his hand against it and gave it a tiny push. It stayed where it was. He started looking around more and found a button next to his seat. He looked at Deceit again, who seemed completely focused on the outside. He gave the button an experimental push and watched as the faint distortion of the clear thing moved. He pushed it again and wind came rushing inside. He fought the instinct to laugh as the wind tousled his hair, then the clear thing moved back to where it had been originally and there was a click. Pressing the button again did nothing. He looked around again and saw a bag on the seat across from him. He reached towards it.

“Don’t touch it.”

He righted himself and settled on watching the blur of colors outside the window. It wasn’t long until they stopped moving and Deceit opened the door. Anxiety fumbled with the buckle until he found the button to release it and he got out. He had to look down again at the bright light, as he followed Deceit into a building. He looked around at the interior. There were all kinds of things he had no name for scattered around.

“This way,” Deceit called, and Anxiety followed him down a hallway and into a new room. A bed, a proper bed, not just a mattress on the floor, took up most of the room, along with a desk and a mirror. He heard a click as the door closed, and he saw what he thought was the same thing as whatever it was that kept the wind out in the moving room. He put his hand to it and sure enough it was stopped. There wasn’t a button near this one, but he found two tabs that he flipped, and he tugged on the ledge. It stuck, and Anxiety shrugged. It wasn’t that huge of a loss. He gave it another tug, although he didn’t expect it to move. To his surprise it gave. He pulled it up and flipped in the tabs, then looked outside, quickly realized he could escape like this, and pulled it back down. There was no way Deceit would put him in a room with such an obvious escape route. There had to be some sort of trap outside. He tried the door and it only gave a tiny bit before it hit something. He leaned against it and tried to force it open, but it stayed put. He backed up to the edge of the room and ran at the door to try again. His vision blurred and he pulled up right before he ran into a picture. He looked behind him and saw a table stacked with random things pushed against the door. He took some of the stuff off and managed to push the table away, then replaced it. Satisfied that it looked like he had just managed to push the door open in spite of the obstacle, he set off in his search.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter! Life happened, and I didn't have time to get it up yesterday or edit it properly. Please let me know if you spot any errors.


	21. Cooking

Drawings lined the hall. Anxiety knew the word for that at least. He put his ear to a door, then opened it carefully. Tile lined the floor and walls. A weird thing that seemed to be made of clear stuff that had been messed with so that it wasn’t clear stood in one corner, a big bowl of water in another and an empty bowl that was near his chest height stood guard near the door. He pushed a button on the bowl near the door and it did nothing. He poked again, then tried twisting it. Water gushed out and he quickly turned it off, freezing as he heard footsteps. Panicking, he bolted for the weird clear stuff. He found the door and stepped inside, pulling it shut. He watched the distorted shape that had to be Deceit move around outside of the mini-room.

“Are you in the shower?” Deceit asked, then the shape moved closer and the door swung open, “Actually, do you know the names for most of the things in here?”

Anxiety shook his head slowly.

“Interesting. What do you know the names of?”

Anxiety eyed him warily.

“Your time away seems to have strengthened your fear. Here,” Deceit handed a small rectangle to him. Letters showed on the bottom half of the screen and a blinking line on the top half, “Tap the letters.”

Anxiety tapped the A, and an A popped up where the blinking line had been. He looked around and found B, then deleted them.

“What’s the name for what you're holding?”

Anxiety paused to think. It had been...he had been in highschool. His friend had gotten something that looked like that. It was a new technology for communicating. It had been so cool. What was it called? A...not a telegraph, he hadn’t even been alive for that...a cell phone! He hunted around for the keys and typed in the word.

“What about the thing you turned on?”

Anxiety shrugged. He had no real idea.

“It’s a sink.”

Why are you teaching me this

“Drag the number key up to get question marks.”

Why are you teaching me this?123456789

“Why did you type in numbers?”

Why are you teaching me this?

“Why do we do anything?”

Anxiety glared at Deceit, who ignored him.

“Are you hungry?”

Anxiety risked a nod.

“Can you cook?”

Anxiety shrugged. He didn’t even know what that was.

“Follow me.”

Anxiety did, memorizing the two short turns it took to reach the new room. Inside was another sink, although this one was set into a series of large blocks, and several different kinds of blocks.

“Do you know what a refrigerator is?”

The instant the words left Deceit’s mouth the word for the big white block clicked into his mind and he pointed at it.

“Stove?”

He pointed at one of the weird boxes.

“Do you know where the pots are?”

Anxiety shook his head.

“They’re under the-” a loud ring interrupted Deceit as the phone in Anxiety’s hand jumped. Deceit grabbed it out of his hands and tapped frantically at it, “Not now, Remus,” he muttered under his breath, then managed to get it under control, “The pots are under the stove. Get one out.”

Anxiety walked over to the stove and opened the small door underneath it, finding a small stack of pots. He grabbed the top one and put it on the counter, closing the door.

“Fill it 3/4 way with water.”

Anxiety walked over to the sink and turned it on, sticking the pot underneath it. When it was about 3/4 way filled he turned off the water, balancing the pot with his other hand to keep it from spilling.

“Put it on the stove and turn it on.”

Anxiety put the pot on the stove, then tried turning the dial that looked like it would turn it on. It refused to move. He tried pressing it and it let him, but didn’t turn on. He gave a final try with a push and turn and the stove top underneath the pot turned red. He moved the pot so that it was centered over the red, then looked back at Deceit. He continued giving instructions until they were seated across from each other with the food Anxiety had made on their plates. Deceit used a fork, and Anxiety refused to touch the fork that had been given to him. The phone rang again and Deceit picked it up. Anxiety watched as Deceit’s faced morphed into an emotion he hadn’t seen before.

“Stay here and don’t touch anything!” Deceit shouted, then ran off, knocking the plate off of the table onto the floor where it split into a million tiny pieces.


	22. Jailbreak

Two looked between One and Three. The singing was alternately getting louder and softer, evidently the singer was looking for something. They would find them soon, and Deceit probably wasn’t there otherwise they would head directly there…

“Hey! We’re in here!” he yelled.

The singing paused, “Who’s down in Dr. Sanders secret lab?”

“We’re here!” he yelled again, ignoring One and Three’s motions to quiet him. They backed away from the door as it slowly swung open, then abruptly swung closed. A tense minute passed, punctuated by sharp rings. Two concentrated on the rings. They were evenly spaced and exactly the same every time. The rings stopped and the door slowly swung open.

“So, are you the reason he spends a lot of time down here?”

“I suppose so.”

“What are you? His nephews?”

“I don’t know exactly, but we share genetic material.”

“How much?”

“100%”

“You’re his clones, then. Gosh peck, he figured out how to clone people and he doesn’t let his assistant know!”

“Are you Remus?”

“Why yes! What has Deceit said about me? I bet it's all tentacles and swords!”

“He hasn’t said much about you directly.”

“You were friends when you were little,” Three finally piped up.

Remus did an over- exaggerated turn as if he had forgotten that there were three of them there instead of just Two.

“Those are two conflicting pieces of information. Unless… he’s given one of you false information to see if you figure it out! But who could it be? The science nerd,” Remus spun to point a finger at Two, “Hi, welcome to the club, the quiet one,” Remus spun to point a finger at One.

“I am not the quiet one!”

“He is not the quiet one.”

Remus ignored him in favor of spinning in on Three, “Or the less-quiet one!”

“Actually, we can remember bits of his life,” Two decided to draw the attention back to him before One decided to fight their chance at escape.

“What the hellity hell? One ab and one pec.”

“What a visual,” Two said, scrunching his nose up.

“How long have you been here?”

“We have been here for 1 year, 2 months, 3 days, and 7 hours.”

“And how old are you?”

“1 year, 2 months, 3 days, and 7 hours old, although developmentally we are similar to someone who is 11 years old.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Remus started, then stopped, his arms outstretched.

“Wait for what?”

“Wait,” he repeated, “So you’ve never gone outside before?”

“No.”

*****

Anxiety stood frozen in the tense silence. Then there were a few clicks and the AC started. He slowly picked his way around the broken plate and made his way back to the room. He started his exploration slowly, carefully combing through every corner, then quickly abandoning that in favor of getting to all the rooms. His groaned in frustration after having tried every door and finding nothing of interest. He hesitantly grabbed the dark sunglasses from a table near the door to the outside and hopped outside.

The first thing he registered was that it was hot. He hadn’t really felt the heat on his two brief excursions before, but now that he was focusing on looking around he was tempted to abandon his task and go back inside. He could feel sweat beading along his hairline already. The second thing he registered was that there was a lot of movement. The wind was moving the leaves and an uneven, lazy stream of moving rooms passed by in either direction. The third thing he registered was that one of the moving rooms was turning to come towards him.

*****

“What is that?” Two asked, eyeing the contraption warily.

“A car,” Remus replied, flipping a set of keys and hitting a button to make it wail, then turning it off.

“And where did you say we are?” One prompted.

“He said we’re in a laboratory in the state of Florida in the country of the States United.”

“United States,” Three corrected quietly.

“United States.”

“Unidos Estados,” One declared.

“No, that would be Estados Unidos,” Two argued.

“No, united is unidos and states is estados.”

“Spanish has different grammatical rules.”

“Remus! Tell him I’m right.”

“DOG.”

“What?” One and Two asked in unison.

“Dios, Oro, Gloria.”

“What?”

“The reasons for colonizing the Americas.”

“What does that have to do with Estados Unidos or Unidos Estados?” Two asked.

“Everything and nothing. Everybody in,” Remus replied and threw open the door, “We’re off to see the mad scientist! The horrible mad scientist of Florida!”

“Are we going to see Middle?” Three asked, scotting to the far left side. One claimed the middle seat and Two stayed on the right.

“Who’s Middle?”

“He’s referring to the fourth person who was with us until recently.”

“There are four of you?”

“Yes.”

“Yeesh, I guess he wanted two controls and two experiments.”

Two sent Three a triumphant look at what was basically a confirmation to what he had said. Three had curled into a ball and was hiding his face in his knees. Two looked back at Remus through the mirror hanging between the two front seats.

“Alright, seatbelts on!”

“What’s a seatbelt?”

“A belt that belongs to the seat.”

One and Two shared a glance of confusion.

“Black strap over one of your shoulders.”

Two grabbed the strap and clicked it into place, with One hurrying to copy him, and Three complying after a moment. With a lurch they started moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few of you may have noticed that I set a final chapter for this story. This is because I have the next and final chapter written out already. I have a couple loose ideas floating around my head for continuations to this series, but I also want to start looking around for new ideas for long stories. What I'm planning on doing is either turning it in to a series of independent stories until I connect with an idea for a longer story or just writing them as the inspiration comes, but I want to know what you would like to read! For the short stories I also plan on taking requests for situations to put them in.


	23. Epilouge

“Look! Look, it’s Black!” Thumb called, pounding on the clear stuff, windows, Remus had called them when Thumb had accidentally opened them earlier.

“Who’s Black?” Remus asked.

Pinky leaned over to look, “Middle!” he yelled, fumbling with the door, which didn’t open. He pressed his face to the window, but Middle was...running? Where was he going?

“We all have different names for each other,” Cheek explained to Remus.

“Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“Why would it be confusing?”

“Everybody out!” Remus said instead of acknowledging him. A click sounded, and when Pinky tried to open the door it did. He raced to get up, realized he still had his seatbelt on, and released it with another click.

“Middle!” he yelled, running after where he had seen his brother disappear. Middle hopped out from behind a bush, looked behind him at the car, his eyebrows creased in an expression Pinky recognized as worried.

“It’s okay, Deceit’s not here. Remus brought us out.”

Middle relaxed a little bit.

“What happened to your foot?”

Middle shrugged.

“Come meet Remus,” Patton said, grabbing the arm on the side of his missing foot and putting it around his shoulders so that he could hang on to him while they walked to Remus.

“Here’s the mad scientist’s house and here’s the mad scientist’s experiment, so where’s the mad scientist?” Remus said, looking around with his hands on his hips. Pinky reached out to steady Middle when he whipped toward the sound of a car pulling in to the driveway. He reached out and pointed at the car, which stopped and spat out Snake, who ran towards Remus.

“There’s the mad scientist!” Remus said cheerfully.

“Remus, what are you doing here?”

“Well, what are you doing with four adorable little Evans?”

“Let’s _not_ go inside.”

Pinky helped Middle inside after Cheek and Thumb. He heard Snake and Remus following them. The sat down in the first room and listened to the faint sound of yelling in the next room where Snake and Remus were.

*****

“Alright, when you go in to the room, there’s going to be a lot of people around. The first thing they’re going to do is hold out a book and say ‘Do you promise to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under pains and penalty of perjury?’ Can you tell me what that means?” the lady who had taken them in to the room said. They could hear things going on in the next room.

“I believe so, but what is perjury?” Two asked. One, Three, and Four nodded their joint confusion.

“Perjury is lying in a court,” the lady replied, looking surprised at the question.

“So, will you only say things that are right, so they won’t punish you for lying?”

“Yes. You should say ‘I do.’ After that, they’re going to ask you some questions. It’s important that you keep calm and answer them as best that you can. If someone interrupts you, stop talking, and wait for the judge to tell you what to do, okay?”

“What about Middle?” Three asked, putting a protective arm around Four.

“Pardon?”

“He can’t talk.”

“Does he know ASL?”

“Yes,” Two replied before Three could. Four shot him a look, but Two ignored him.

“One of the jurors is deaf and has an interpreter. I’ll speak with them and see what we can do. Is there anything else?”

The four of them shook their heads.

“Excellent. Sally, come,” the woman called, and a dog with short tan fur trotted from her place in the corner up to them.

“This is Sally. If you want, she can go with you in to the room.”

“Hi, Sally,” Three said, holding out a hand to the dog. She licked his hand. They sat quietly.

“I’d like to call my first witness to the stand, Two,” a voice called clearly from behind the wall.

“Do you want Sally to come with you?” Two shook his head, and the lady let him in to a room. There was a far greater number of people there than Two had expected. He wrapped his hands around a small, flimsy pole.

“Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth under pains and penalty of perjury?” a man in a suit asked him.

“I do,” Two replied, his voice sounding insignificant to him in the echoing room.

“How old are you?”

“Do you mean how long I have existed as a conscious entity or how old I am developmentally?”

“How long have you existed as a conscious entity?”

“1 year, 3 months, 6 days, and 13 hours.”

“How many people do you know?”

“Prior to 1 month, 4 days, and 8 hours ago, the only contact I had with other people was with Dr. Sanders, One, Three, and Four. It is my understanding you know them as Evan Sanders, Red, Pinky, and A.”

“Where did you get your name?”

“I refer to myself as Two because the name tag I wore said 2318-2. The nametags of One, Three, and Four said 2318-1, 2318-3, and 2318-4. I shortened them to the last digit to make it easier to say.”

The questions dragged on and on. They questioned him about Dr. Sanders, what he did to them, and all sorts of questions Two didn’t see the meaning for. Finally he was allowed to go back. He shook off questions from Three, as One was called out with Sally. Three and Four both opted to go out with Sally, and finally they were lead out and went back home with Remus.

*****

The days dragged on, then a lady came to Remus’s house. Two sat quietly in the corner doing a puzzle and listening to them talk.

“The hearings and investigations finished. Evan is facing fines, jail time, and consequences from the scientific community. He also is losing his parental rights.”

“No.”

“Pardon?”

“You’re coming to ask me if I can look over them. I can’t.”

“You’ve cared for them over the past month.”

“Psh, giving them food, water, some games, and driving them to court where I need to show up anyways is easy. That’s what they’re used to. Well, minus the driving and add in whatever weird stuff Ev did. I’m the last person you should trust with kids long-term. Minus people like Evan.”

“They’re going to end up in the foster program. At their age they probably won’t get adopted out, especially as a group.”

“I’m still not employed. I can’t care for their emotional needs.”

Their conversation wandered in circles until Remus said he knew a family that might be willing to take them in. More days dragged by, then they were packing up the few possessions they had and piling in to the car to go start the next chapter of their life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep posted for the next piece: an alternate ending where Logan made it out first.


End file.
